Talensi District, in the Upper East region, over the weekend awarded Ayinejebala Francis as the Best District Farmer at the 34th National Farmer Day Celebrations held at Yinduri.
Ayinejebala Francis is father of seven children and two wives, who support him in his work as a farmer.
Mr. Ayinejebala has a total of 30 acres of Crops, 2 acres of Soya beans, 2 acre of Cowpea, 9 acres of Rice, 7 acres of Yellow melon, 5 acres of Pepper and 12 acres of Onions. The Talensi District Best Farmer also has 79 Sheep, 72 Cattle, 95 Pigs and 40 Rabbits.
For his prize, the Talensi District Best Farmer was given 1 three wheel motorbike with a cart, 1 pair of Wellington boots, 2 Cutlasses, 1 Knapsack sprayer, and half piece of wax print, a Radio set and a Certificate of honour.
In an interview with www.a1radioonline.com at Yinduri, Mr. Ayinejebala expressed satisfaction with the honor done him and promised to improve on his achievements in the coming years.
“… today I have come to this point, it has not been easy for me. I started farming from my childhood days and every year, I contest for this position, but I have been losing to some other farmers and yet I did not lose hope. I continued taking advice from the award winners.
So all the time, I go to them to find out the steps they took to reach that position and they advised me. The Agric officers also helped, they visit my farm from time to time to offer pieces of advice and monitor my progress. I will continue what am doing now and even improve; my main challenge now, is how to engage workers to expand my farms.” He noted.
He however advised other farmers who lost the title to him not to be discouraged, rather they should work harder to attract the award next year.
He urged all stakeholders including District Assembly and farmers in the district, to put more efforts into Agriculture to help boast that Sector of the District’s economy and to ensure Food Security.
Eight other farmers, Alapaa Aziba, Aduko Atiah, Atamya Alfred, David Boabil Kuumahme, Tindaan T. Norbert, Timothy Kurug and Agambila Atule Maxwell also received their awards and certificates.
Talensi District Chief Executive Dr. Christopher Boatbil was happy with some achievements in 2018 and promised that, government will invest more into the Agric Sector to create the enabling environment for farmers to work and invest.
“I am happy to state that, our dear district is a beneficiary of the govenment’s laudable initiatives including the Planting for Food and Jobs. Under this programme for example, we have in 2018, distributed 8,850 coupons of NPK, 5,850 coupons of SA, 99 bags of maize, 4 bags of rice, 24 sachet of onion and 5 bags of soybeans to farmers.” He said
He also announced that, the District Assembly has handed over sites to contractors working on the 1 Village 1 Dam projects in Pwalugu, Yinduri, Yagzore,Sawalga, Awaradone and Kaare.
“We are also to benefit from a warehouse at Pusu-Namogo and this warehouse is to be equipped with seed cleaners, dryers and weighing scales.” He hinted
The Talensi District MoFA Director, Sulemana Mathew said the District registered a total of 2,600 farmers to benefit from the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) during the 2018 cropping season and out of the 2,600 registered, a total of 1,774 farmers made up of 1,520 males and 254 females really benefited.
Touching on the Fall Army Worms infestation, the District MoFA called for collaboration from all stakeholders especially farmers to fight the Worms in the district.
“Field monitoring revealed that an area of 4,793 acres of maize were affected by the fall army worms and with spraying, we were able to recover these farms.
Source: a1radioonline.com/ Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen/Ghana
